Commonly, such portable stoves comprise a burner body having a burner head, an exchangeable jet screwable into the burner head, a plurality of legs attached to the burner body, and a flame spreader detachably mounted on top of the burner head upstream the jet in the flame direction. When lighted, the flame emerges from the jet and hits the flame spreader where the flame is laterally distributed to obtain a planar heating of the cookware placed on top of the burner head. The legs are intended to have the portable stove stably resting on a surface or ground floor and can for instance be plugged to the burner body or be pivotally mounted to the burner body.
A portable stove as describe above is available as Primus® OmniFuel Stove. Said stove can be used with a plurality of different combustibles including gaseous combustibles like propane, butane or a mixture thereof, white gas, or liquid combustibles like vehicle petrol, kerosene or diesel oil. Hence, the stove can be used with nearly all combustible available worldwide. A schematic perspective view of the Primus® OmniFuel Stove is shown in FIG. 1 with the portable stove being connected to a gas cartridge storing a gaseous combustible (FIG. 1a) and being connected to a fuel bottle storing liquid combustible (cf. FIG. 1b).
To ensure optimal flame patterns and a clean combustion, the jet mounted to the burner head has to be chosen to suit the combustible used. For instance, in case liquid fuel is used, a jet having a smaller size is to be mounted to the burner head compared to the jet to be used when a gaseous combustible is burned.
To exchange the jet, the flame spreader is detached from the burner head, and the jet currently mounted to the burner head is unscrewed. Afterwards the new jet is screwed to the burner head and the flame spreader is again mounted. For mounting and demounting the flame spreader, the latter one is provided with three mounting arms having catch mechanisms at the ends which engage the upper rim of the burner head. However, for mounting and demounting the flame spreader a lot of force is required. In addition, the catch mechanisms may be worn if mounted and demounted many a time. Thus, the flame spread might no longer be stably fitted to the stove or might even get lost during travelling.
Furthermore, in case the user is travelling for a long time and is not sure about the combustibles available in remote locations, several jets are to be taken with oneself. The jets are to be stored somewhere, e.g. in a storage container like a bag or a box or the like. However, in case the storage container is lost, only the jet currently screwed to the burner head is available. This might be crucial as using a non-suitable jet with the respective combustible may lead to sooting of the burner head rendering the portable stove unusable. In addition, a non-suitable jet does no longer ensure a clean combustion and hence, harmful compounds or gases may be formed, e.g. carbon monoxide.
Hence, the above outlined disadvantages might lead to inconvenient or even dangerous situations in case the portable stove cannot be used any longer due to a lost jet or a lost flame spreader or when the portable stove is used with a jet incompatible to the used combustible.